Boardwalk Hall- The Kimball ballroom organ

"You know you want it"...a tour of the ballroom organ, the "other" organ at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

[@stepheneggert9474]

Kimball was a great organ..built in Chicago..in those days..glad to see it's working again.

[@worldlinerai]

The Kimball organ is tiny compared to the Midmer-Losh being about 1/8 of its size, but compared to other theatre organs, this is one of the largest out there. The largest theatre organ (Radio City Hall) was supposed to be a Kimball too, but for some reason Wurlitzer got the build contract.

[@agogobell28]

This organ looks really well-built, in terms of the layout and the tonal structure.

[@chrisnagorka5199]

Having had some time on it today I'll say it's one of the finest organs of its era, bar none.

[@johnnyjames7139]

The 4m 37r Kimball that was in the Wilturn Theatre was removed in 1986. I have felt like a part of me has been mussing ever since. Treasure what you have!

[@blu4r414]

If possible, could you make stop demonstrations for both organs? The one for the midmer-losh is quite old

[@brucemcgee2281]

It's all so beautiful to see. Thank you.

[@IanTheOrganist]

This division is the coolest

[@EElgar1857]

Thanks for an awesome tour! IMHO, the Kimball is the truly great organ in A.C. We got to hear it at the OHS convention a couple of years ago.

[@chrisnagorka5199]

It is an extremely fine instrument.

[@astian_sebus]

Thank you for this video! I love this kind of tours. I've got one question: How do you tune the reeds, if they are placed so close together, especially if there are 4 ranks next to each other, like in the Solo? I imagine it would be a very hard and fiddly task, as I know how difficult it is, if there are only 2 ranks next to each other, like in "my" organ (a church organ, the two ranks are an Oboe and Trompette harmonique in the Swell)

[@cnagorka]

Just use a long tuning knife and go in from the top as much as you can. Yes it can indeed be difficult and fiddly.

[@James_Bowie]

@@cnagorka Not to mention dust in the reeds.

[@Maxxarcade]

This organ looks to be in pretty good shape compared to the M-L. How do you clean the dust out of organ chambers, such as between all the pipes? Looks like a simple cleaning could take ages.

[@Patriot1776]

Yes, the Kimball wasn't very experimental compared to the Midmer-Losh. The first manager of the Hall wanted the Kimball to be a dedicated theater organ, but fortunately Senator Richards knew that in 1929-1931, the days of the silent movie were numbered. 'Talkies' were just around the corner and the conventional 'theatre organ' was about to become obsolete. So he designed the BWH Kimball to be a 'general-purpose' instrument, adding classical organ stops, choruses, and mixtures on top of a 'theatre organ' specification to create an instrument that could be used for smaller conventions and gatherings in the ballroom, and this was a very wise choice, as the Kimball continued to see plenty of use even after the Midmer-Losh began to be neglected as the decades passed. It does help too though that in 2018-2019, the American Guild of Organists donated a million bucks to HORC, Inc. in order to facilitate the organ crew at BWH being able to give the Kimball some long-overdue attention in re-leathering the chests in the right-side chamber I think that were still playing on their original 1930 pouches and were overdue for overhaul and pipe refurbishment.

[@cnagorka]

You do indeed take all the pipes off the main chests, then the rackboards and upright racks, etc. Then it all gets cleaned and put back, that's all there is to it. An organ like the Kimball would take a couple weeks if you did it all at once.

[@markkonchan5468]

Thank You for this!!!

[@GordonClare]

thanks for sharing 👍

[@johanbrand8601]

Thank you.

[@SamsungUser69]

will this be loud enough to make my neighbors not sleep? if so, i will buy for $99999999

[@OrganMusicYT]

I find it a shame that the Empress Ballroom in Blackpool (not the Tower Ballroom) never saw a larger instrument such as this, it's a longer narrower room of similar square footage, but with a barrel-vaulted ceiling which makes for a brilliant acoustic. Not that I'm complaining about the organs that that space has seen, the room makes 13 ranks sing beautifully, but it would have been nice if the chamber space that was added in 1934 had allowed for a larger instrument in terms of scale and specification.

[@geezlepuss7863]

Is this organ an example of the Parkinson's Law: ""work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." If they had a week to repair the organ, why it would be repaired in a week; if 10 years, it will take 10 years. If there is no time limit, it will never be repaired!

[@JIMD6370]

Chris; what digital system are they using? Opus2?

[@cnagorka]

Correct, Opus 2.

[@zack_120]

How is this Kimball related to the entire organ? A part of it or its another name?

[@cnagorka]

This is a totally different organ in a different room altogether.

[@heron2]

What is an offset?

[@chrisnagorka5199]

PIpes that are too large or inconvenient to fit on a "main" chest are put on their own "offset" chests. That way you can take the largest pipes and locate them near the floor, as opposed to the main chest which sits up several feet, etc.

[@augustberchelmann4946]

13:50 WHY is there a fire sprinkler in the organ chamber????

[@cnagorka]

Would you rather have a water damaged organ or a pile of ashes?

[@OrganMusicYT]

@@cnagorka Neither. One of the organs I know well has a CO2 system in place, another which has a dry powder system. I think I'd prefer the CO2 system, it's less messy.

[@mitchellscheffler9100]

Is the Kimball 100% functional?

[@cnagorka]

As far as I know, yes.

[@adamharris5355]

Am I the only one to look at the reeds and see Beaker from Sesame street?

[@cnagorka]

Yes you are the only one because Beaker was on the Muppet Show, not Sesame Street.